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1.\" $NetBSD: rename.2,v 1.7 1995/02/27 12:36:15 cgd Exp $
2.\"
3.\" Copyright (c) 1983, 1991, 1993
4.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
5.\"
6.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
7.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
8.\" are met:
9.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
10.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
11.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
12.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
13.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
14.\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
15.\" must display the following acknowledgement:
16.\" This product includes software developed by the University of
17.\" California, Berkeley and its contributors.
18.\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
19.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
20.\" without specific prior written permission.
21.\"
22.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
23.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
24.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
25.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
26.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
27.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
28.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
29.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
30.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
31.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
32.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
33.\"
34.\" @(#)rename.2 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93
35.\"
36.Dd June 4, 1993
37.Dt RENAME 2
38.Os BSD 4.2
39.Sh NAME
40.Nm rename
41.Nd change the name of a file
42.Sh SYNOPSIS
43.Fd #include <stdio.h>
44.Ft int
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45.Fo rename
46.Fa "const char *old"
47.Fa "const char *new"
48.Fc
9bccf70c 49.Sh DESCRIPTION
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50The
51.Fn rename
52system call causes the link named
53.Fa old
9bccf70c 54to be renamed as
2d21ac55 55.Fa new .
9bccf70c 56If
2d21ac55 57.Fa new
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58exists, it is first removed.
59Both
2d21ac55 60.Fa old
9bccf70c 61and
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62.Fa new
63must be of the same type
64(that is, both must be either directories or non-directories)
65and must reside on the same file system.
9bccf70c 66.Pp
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67The
68.Fn rename
69system call guarantees that an instance of
70.Fa new
71will always exist,
72even if the system should crash in the middle of the operation.
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73.Pp
74If the final component of
2d21ac55 75.Fa old
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76is a symbolic link,
77the symbolic link is renamed,
78not the file or directory to which it points.
79.Sh CAVEAT
2d21ac55 80The system can deadlock if a loop is present in the file system graph.
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81This loop takes the form of an entry in directory
82.Ql Pa a ,
83say
84.Ql Pa a/foo ,
85being a hard link to directory
86.Ql Pa b ,
87and an entry in
88directory
89.Ql Pa b ,
90say
91.Ql Pa b/bar ,
92being a hard link
93to directory
94.Ql Pa a .
95When such a loop exists and two separate processes attempt to
96perform
97.Ql rename a/foo b/bar
98and
99.Ql rename b/bar a/foo ,
100respectively,
101the system may deadlock attempting to lock
102both directories for modification.
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103.Pp
104Whether or not hard links to directories are supported is specific to
105the underlying filesystem implementation.
106.Pp
107It is recommended that any hard links to directories in an underlying
108filesystem should be replaced by symbolic links by the system administrator
109to avoid the possibility of deadlocks.
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110.Sh RETURN VALUES
111A 0 value is returned if the operation succeeds, otherwise
112.Fn rename
113returns -1 and the global variable
114.Va errno
115indicates the reason for the failure.
116.Sh ERRORS
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117The
118.Fn rename
119system call will fail and neither of the argument files will be
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120affected if:
121.Bl -tag -width Er
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122.\" ===========
123.It Bq Er EACCES
124A component of either path prefix denies search permission.
125.\" ===========
126.It Bq Er EACCES
127The requested operation requires writing in a directory
128(e.g.,
129.Fa new ,
130new/.., or old/..) whose modes disallow this.
131.\" ===========
132.It Bq Er EDQUOT
133The directory in which the entry for the new name
134is being placed cannot be extended because the
135user's quota of disk blocks on the file system
136containing the directory has been exhausted.
137.\" ===========
138.It Bq Er EFAULT
139.Em Path
140points outside the process's allocated address space.
141.\" ===========
142.It Bq Er EINVAL
143.Fa Old
144is a parent directory of
145.Fa new ,
146or an attempt is made to rename
147.Ql \&.
148or
149.Ql \&.. .
150.\" ===========
151.It Bq Er EIO
152An I/O error occurs while making or updating a directory entry.
153.\" ===========
154.It Bq Er EISDIR
155.Fa new
156is a directory, but
157.Fa old
158is not a directory.
159.\" ===========
160.It Bq Er ELOOP
161Too many symbolic links are encountered in translating either pathname.
162This is taken to be indicative of a looping symbolic link.
163.\" ===========
9bccf70c 164.It Bq Er ENAMETOOLONG
2d21ac55 165A component of a pathname exceeds
9bccf70c 166.Dv {NAME_MAX}
2d21ac55 167characters, or an entire path name exceeds
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168.Dv {PATH_MAX}
169characters.
2d21ac55 170.\" ===========
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171.It Bq Er ENOENT
172A component of the
2d21ac55 173.Fa old
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174path does not exist,
175or a path prefix of
2d21ac55 176.Fa new
9bccf70c 177does not exist.
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178.\" ===========
179.It Bq Er ENOSPC
180The directory in which the entry for the new name is being placed
181cannot be extended because there is no space left on the file
182system containing the directory.
183.\" ===========
184.It Bq Er ENOTDIR
185A component of either path prefix is not a directory.
186.\" ===========
187.It Bq Er ENOTDIR
188.Fa old
189is a directory, but
190.Fa new
191is not a directory.
192.\" ===========
193.It Bq Er ENOTEMPTY
194.Fa New
195is a directory and is not empty.
196.\" ===========
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197.It Bq Er EPERM
198The directory containing
2d21ac55 199.Fa old
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200is marked sticky,
201and neither the containing directory nor
2d21ac55 202.Fa old
9bccf70c 203are owned by the effective user ID.
2d21ac55 204.\" ===========
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205.It Bq Er EPERM
206The
2d21ac55 207.Fa new
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208file exists,
209the directory containing
2d21ac55 210.Fa new
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211is marked sticky,
212and neither the containing directory nor
2d21ac55 213.Fa new
9bccf70c 214are owned by the effective user ID.
2d21ac55 215.\" ===========
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216.It Bq Er EROFS
217The requested link requires writing in a directory on a read-only file
218system.
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219.\" ===========
220.It Bq Er EXDEV
221The link named by
222.Fa new
223and the file named by
224.Fa old
225are on different logical devices (file systems).
226Note that this error code will not be returned
227if the implementation permits cross-device links.
9bccf70c 228.El
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229.Sh CONFORMANCE
230The restriction on renaming a directory whose permissions disallow writing
231is based on the fact that UFS directories contain a ".." entry.
232If renaming a directory would move it to another parent directory,
233this entry needs to be changed.
234.Pp
235This restriction has been generalized to disallow renaming
236of any write-disabled directory,
237even when this would not require a change to the ".." entry.
238For consistency, HFS+ directories emulate this behavior.
9bccf70c 239.Sh SEE ALSO
2d21ac55 240.Xr open 2 ,
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241.Xr symlink 7
242.Sh STANDARDS
243The
244.Fn rename
245function conforms to
246.St -p1003.1-88 .